Literature Search

5 Best Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer Templates

Discover the 5 best who, what, when, where, why graphic organizer templates to simplify information organization and boost comprehension.

Sep 8, 2024

People Working - Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer
People Working - Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer
People Working - Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer

Consider you sit down with books and articles to prepare for a research paper. You face a mountain of information, figuring out how to organize your findings. A who, what, when, where, why graphic organizer comes in here. It can help you break down your literature search into manageable pieces so you can systematically tackle your writing. 

This guide will explore the many benefits of AI as a research tool, including its ability to help you write efficient papers and generate fantastic study material. Otio's AI research and writing partner can also help you employ graphic organizers to structure and visualize your research.

Table Of Contents

What is A 5 W's Graphic Organizer?

5 W's - Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer

A 5 W’s chart is a graphic organizer that will help students visualize asking questions that start with who, what, where, when, and why. When students want to gain knowledge on a topic or a deeper understanding of a story, it’s a great tool to gain information. Students can use a 5 W's chart to organize their questions and what they have learned from a lesson or reading. It can also help students further analyze a topic they are discussing in school. 

How to Use a 5 W’s Chart

Make using the 5 W’s chart fun and interactive in your classroom. It’s an excellent opportunity to encourage curiosity and creativity with your students. Here is one way you can integrate the chart into your lesson. Project or display the 5 W’s Chart. Good questions often start with a W-word model, asking and answering questions about a familiar text. 

I will use the W-words in my questions. Have students contribute their questions and predictions. Tell students to practice answering and asking questions as they read a story or book related to your current curriculum. 

Purpose of Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer

Laptop Laying - Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer

Clarifying the Facts: Who, What, When, Where, Why Graphic Organizer

The Who What When, Where Why graphic organizer helps break down critical details. Instead of reading a passage or article and trying to remember the key points, the 5Ws graphic organizer lets students summarize the information by filling in the blanks. 

For example, if a student was reading about the American Revolution, they could identify “Who” was involved in the conflict, “What” the war was fought over, “when” it took place, “where” the battles occurred, and “why” it was necessary. This would provide an outline or structure to better understand the topic before delving into the specifics. 

Improving Comprehension: Who, What, When, Where, Why Graphic Organizer

The Who, What, When, Where, Why graphic organizer helps improve comprehension by breaking complex topics into easy-to-understand sections. Instead of getting overwhelmed by the details, students can identify the key facts before exploring each one. This helps reduce confusion and improve overall understanding. 

Enhancing Problem-Solving: Who, What, When, Where, Why Graphic Organizer

The Who, What, When, Where, and Why graphic organizer can enhance problem-solving skills by allowing students to break down and analyze situations methodically. Applying the 5Ws can lead to better decision-making and resolutions when faced with a complex issue. 

Organizing Thoughts: Who, What, When, Where, Why Graphic Organizer

The Who, What, When, Where, Why graphic organizer helps organize thoughts for writing and research. The 5Ws can provide a valuable structure for students to outline information before beginning a project or paper. This helps reduce anxiety and improve overall academic performance. 

Summarizing Information: Who, What, When, Where, Why Graphic Organizer

The Who What When Where Why graphic organizer is useful for summarizing information. It can help students break down and simplify articles, stories, or reports by focusing on the core elements of the text. 

Supercharge Your Researching Ability With Otio

Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner. Today, knowledge workers, researchers, and students suffer from content overload and are left to deal with it using fragmented, complex, and manual tooling. Too many settle for stitching together complicated bookmarking, read-it-later, and note-taking apps to get through their workflows. 

Now that anyone can create content with a button, this problem will only worsen. Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them: 

1. Collect a wide range of data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos. 

2. Extract key takeaways with detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. 

3. Create draft outputs using the sources you’ve collected. 

Otio helps you to go from the reading list to the first draft faster. Along with this, Otio also enables you to write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features that researchers love: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing. 

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How To Create A Who, What, When, Where, Why Graphic Organizer

Persons Working - Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer

Creating a 5Ws graphic organizer is a straightforward process. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to create one: 

1. Choose a Layout 

You can design it in different shapes (table, chart, bubble map, etc.). Table: 

A table with five columns or rows for each question (Who, What, When, Where, Why). Bubble Map: Create a central bubble for the main topic and branch out into five bubbles labeled with each "W" question. 

2. Label the Organizer with the 5Ws. 

Add the Who, What, When, Where, and Why (and sometimes How) as headers or prompts. 

Example

  • Who: Who is involved? 

  • What: What happened? 

  • When: When did it happen? 

  • Where: Where did it take place? 

  • Why: Why did it happen? 

3. Provide Space for Responses

Ensure enough space under or around each W question to write detailed responses. If it’s digital, provide text boxes or lines for reactions. 

4. Add Instructions (Optional).

If you create this for others (e.g., students or collaborators), provide clear instructions on what information to fill in each section. 

5. Make It Visual (Optional) 

Add colors, icons, or graphics to make it visually appealing and easier to navigate. 

Tools for Creating Hand-drawn

Using a ruler and pen, you can sketch it on paper. 

Digital

Use software like Otio, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Canva, or any graphic design tool to create a polished version. 

Templates

You can also find free templates online to save time.

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5 Best Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer Templates

A Setup - Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer

1. What is Otio? 

The overload of available content is stressful for researchers, students, and other knowledge workers. They often need more adequate tools to manage their stress and find themselves piecing together an unwieldy collection of note-taking apps, bookmark organizers, and read-it-later tools to make sense of their workflows. With so many people publishing information online today, the problem will only worsen. 

Otio is an AI-infused workspace designed to decrease research stress by helping users organize their materials and write better. Users can collect various data sources, from tweets, bookmarks, and YouTube videos to extensive books and PDFs. They can extract key takeaways with detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. Finally, Otio helps users create draft outputs using their collected sources. 

The program helps researchers go from the reading list to the first draft faster. Along with this, Otio also helps users write research papers and essays faster. Features include AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (YouTube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), the ability to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases like ChatGPT, and AI-assisted writing. 

2. Teachers Pay Teachers 5W's Graphic Organizer Templates.

The 5 Ws graphic organizer templates from Teachers Pay Teachers are fantastic for practicing asking and answering questions and understanding the 5 Ws and key details in a text. Various designs are available, making selecting one that meets your students' learning styles easy. 

3. Twinkl 5W's Graphic Organizer

The Five Ws graphic organizer from Twinkl helps students identify the key elements of a piece of writing or film. With this resource, students can identify a text's who, where, when, why, and what, thereby developing a solid understanding of the story. This resource makes an excellent starting task for comprehension-based writing.

4. Enchanted Learning 5W's Graphic Organizer

Enchanted Learning has various types of 5 Ws graphic organizers. These diagrams help examine the critical points of a story or event. For example, you can use one of these diagrams to analyze a science news story, a national news story, an event that happened to the student, a fable, or a folktale. 

5. Worksheet Library

Worksheet Library has seven different 5 W graphic organizer worksheets. Each has a distinct appearance and features different shapes, such as pyramids, stars, wheels, and sets. You can download the PDFs in any shape.

What Are The 5 Types of Graphic Organizers and Their Definition?

Person Holding Phone - Who What When Where Why Graphic Organizer

1. Brace Map Graphic Organizer: Dissecting Complex Ideas with Visual Accuracy  

A brace map graphic organizer helps examine the parts of a whole and the relationship between them. Visually, a brace map looks like a sideways tree chart. The difference is that a brace map spreads out into all the parts of the original whole. On the other hand, the tree chart is more conceptual and used for organizing rather than separating concepts. This type of organizer must include a real object or situation as the initial premise. Concepts and ideas are not what brace maps are for. Math teachers use brace maps to help their students understand the parts that make up large numbers. Students can see how a number works visually by separating whole numbers into smaller parts. When it's time to add or subtract, students can use the knowledge learned through brace maps and feel confident about their conclusions, for example, 563. 

The number is the initial object, and to its right is a bracket. Inside the bracket are the parts of the numbers 500, 60, and 3. Outside of an academic setting, brace maps can help visualize the creation of a website. The initial object can be the website as a whole. To the right of it, a brace opens to reveal the main parts, in this case, the website's pages. Each page opens a new brace, showing everything that should be inside that page. 

A brace map can extend sideways until all the parts have been identified. Another excellent use for a brace map is workplace organization. A beautifully designed brace map can be made into a poster showing a startup office's sections, including who works where and where to find them. Or, for a premier co-working space that houses all sorts of enterprises, a fun brace map can be used as an outline to show everyone how they can network with each other.   

2. Analogy Graphic Organizer: Finding Unique Similarities to Enhance Learning  

A more unique example of a graphic organizer is the analogy organizer. This organizer finds similarities between things and creates analogies. In other words, an analogy compares two things by showing their similarities. 

This is How an Analogy Works

Superman has the power of flight, and Spiderman has the power of web-slinging. We compare Superman to Spiderman by using what they have in everyday superpowers. For children, creating analogies is an integral part of language development. Analogy organizers make it easier for them to internalize this knowledge. An analogy organizer can create a narrative style for a written work. 

Using the main words in an idea and creating analogies can make content more appealing. From business proposals to informative blog posts, analogies can add a personal touch. Another use of the analogy organizer is for a training session for a new team member. With analogies, the training can be more fun than just a bunch of information they need to learn.   

3. T-Chart Graphic Organizer: The Go-To for Simple Comparisons  

A T-chart is a simple but quite versatile organizational chart. It's used mainly to compare two topics. The most common use is to compare the pros and cons of a decision. For example, what are the pros and cons of revamping your website? Seeing it all mapped out can help you make the right decision. 

Another visual use for this type of organizational chart is to compare two things through their differences. T-Charts are not for finding similarities between things. Visually, a T-Chart has a large heading at the top with the title and two columns side by side that are filled in with information according to each topic. It visually resembles the letter T. The data can be organized as a list with text or images to support it visually.   

4. Timeline Chart Graphic Organizer: Keep Events in Chronological Order  

A timeline chart is a long line representing a period. All along the line, connected shapes stem out, depicting events on specific dates. The events are organized in chronological order. The main line representing a period can be visualized horizontally, vertically, or as a freeform shape. 

A timeline chart can sometimes look like a chain of events. The difference between the two is that a timeline chart visually depicts the dates of things that have happened, while a sequence of events is timeless. This particular organizational chart is a good visualization tool for the classroom. It can be used for history projects and to better understand historical events.   

5. Storyboard Graphic Organizer: Visually Mapping Out a Narrative  

The last organizational chart in this list is the storyboard. A storyboard visually looks like a simple comic strip. Its purpose is to visualize a story with images. Storyboards are used every day for video and film production. Each square in the storyboard can represent one scene in the film. 

Another use of a storyboard is for UX designers to create customer personas and possible situations in which the website, app, or product is used. Storyboards are also used in schools to teach sequencing and cause and effect in stories and fables. A storyboard doesn’t need to be a static page with squares; it can be cut into sections and used for creative writing organization. Writers can sketch the scenes in their story and organize the visual squares in any order until they are happy with the outcome.

Supercharge Your Researching Ability With Otio — Try Otio for Free Today

Research today is like drinking from a fire hose. There’s just too much information. A professor at MIT found that academic research doubled between 2000 and 2016, and the growth rate isn’t slowing down. 

The more content there is, the harder it is to understand everything. Knowledge workers, researchers, and students all suffer from the increasing volume of academic literature, especially when pressured to produce high-quality work quickly. 

Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner try Otio for free today

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